Xmen: Of Mutant and Man: Volume 1
by Jack twilight
Summary: New Heroes emerge as Old villians arise, and the threat to the world becomes a threat to existence itself.


**X-MEN: _Of Mutant and Man Volume 1_**

_**Chapter 1: New Blood Meets Old Steel**_

With the election of President Striker head of the United Nations, it seems as though mutants and humans had reached a ceasefire, the first step towards Professor Xavier's dream of peace, the professor along with Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Rachel Summers and Hank McCoy head to the first annual mutant-human Relations summit at the UN building in New York.

From a small apartment six blocks from the UN building, Betsy Braddock, Jubilee, Kurt Wagner and the man known as Logan observe the conference on television. "This ain't right we should be out at the building in case anything goes wrong, instead of watching from the sidelines." Logan says opening a beer with his claws.

"Relax Logan no one is going to make an attack on the UN building, between S.H.I.E.LD.'s Forces, and the UN's they have enough firepower to take down asteroid M." Betsy Replies in her English accent.

"Besides Wolverine, we are only a few blocks avay, and I can get there in a few leaps." Kurt replies reaching into the fridge for a Pepsi.

"Plus Cable is out there somewhere, probably setting up a …what's he call that a Perimeter." Jubilee replies sipping on a Diet Pepsi and munching on some Doritos.

At the conference Professor Xavier and his abbreviated band of X-men arrive in a Limousine provided by the UN, to transport them from their hotel to the grand building. The professor wheels out into the walkway flanked by the summers family and behind him Hank Mccoy, Usually dark blue covered in fur, is wearing a holo-emiter that projects his human form on his body, a project he had been working on for a while. The blue prints for the device attracted some attention and were almost stolen a few times. Mainly because of the military and espionage capabilities. "Remember my X-men. we must keep a lookout for anything amiss, and if something does go wrong protect the civilians first." Professor Xavier passes to each of them through thought. "Rachel and Jean keep your minds open to any thoughts on subterfuge, Scott you work with security to track those that Jean and Rachel identify, and Hank you and I will talk to the committee."

As the X-men make their way to the door of the building, A young man walks up to the group, he looks in his teens, his hair dark brown hair is kept short and deep blue eyes stare past them as he walks towards them. As he gets in front of them Scott notices a small earpiece that is barely visible. The young man is dressed in black slacks and a nice shirt with a leather jacket covering most of it, and his hands are in his pockets. Two stun pistols are tucked inside the jacket and a Knife is attached to his ankle all out of view of anyone who doesn't search him. He pulls out sun glasses from inside the jacket and puts them on as he steps into the light of the sun. He then walks up to the good professor and searches the others for emotions. The one behind the Professor looks familiar, but weird to him. Standing there he begins to introduce himself.

"Welcome Professor Xavier, I'm your liaison here at the conference, Agent Andrew Michael Perry, I will also serve as your personal bodyguard. Each of the leaders is given one while here, and as I know you will object, know this none of the leaders are allowed to take place without one. And believe me I didn't want us to be paired together either, but I will guarantee that as long as I am here you will be safe. As for your friends, the telepaths will work with our floor agents. Visor boy right there can work in one of our command stations. And you and the Hulk right there can follow me and take your seats at the table." Andrew says searching the faces of the others.

"Thank you Mr. Perry, so do all the body guards here work for S.H.I.E.L.D. or just you?" Hank questions.

"Very observant, I'm sorry you haven't introduced your compatriots"

Professor Xavier Speaks up "I doubt I need to introduce them, as I know you have probably read all the files that S.H.I.E.L.D has on the X-men but the man behind me is Dr. Henry Mccoy, the younger red head is named Rachel, the other striking beauty is Jeans Grey Summer and the man to my right is Scott Summers. We thank you , and I take it if I have any problems or need anything I can just ask you, and please don't think of yourself as my assistant…up till now your thoughts have not been so communal."

"Nice trick professor, now if you will follow me we can all take our places…I believe you know that the prisoner known as Magneto will be here as well as Mr. Task. All views will be open to the committee and they will begin to help make laws for humanity." As Andrew says this a rock comes flying towards the group, quickly Andrew turns around and steps in front of Rachel catching the rock before it can hit her. A cry of "Go Home Muties" is yelled from somewhere in the crows as Andrew tosses the rock to the side.

"Impressive Mr. Perry Rachel says smiling at him gazing into his eyes. I guess maybe you have something in common with us after all." She says implying he may be a Mutant.

"Sorry Ms. But although a few of the liaisons may be mutants, I am not. We set it so the mutant liaisons would be paired with humans and vice versa to promote peace. The only group that had a problem with this was the representatives for the new brotherhood of humanity and so they forfeited their right to be here today. "

Professor Xavier examines his personal liaison and feels that maybe he doesn't realize that he may be a mutant or he lives in denial like so many other young mutants just discovering their powers. "Maybe there is more to this one than meets the eyes." the professor thinks as they all walk into the building and see the thousands of others in the forum. The group splits up and takes their positions. Professor Xavier Hank and Andrew walk towards the front and are placed at a table around the main table where the committee will sit. Hank sits on his left with Andrew on his right, He turns to Andrew and speaks with the young man. " so how long have you been working for S.H.I.E.LD. "

"Sir, while in here I don't think that talking about it would be the greatest Idea, besides you should be focusing on your speech. And I'm not one for talking so if you don't mind unless you have something you need from me I'd like to just sit here and study the crowd.

After six hours and six or seven attempts on the various dignitaries lives later, the committee reaches a decision to start deliberating on mutant right laws and protection laws. Seeing that things are not going his way Mr. Trask presses a button on his briefcase.

Running back inside the apartment Jubiliee yells to everyone else…. "Sentinels….they are headed for the UN building."

Quickly the team of X-men run towards the roof and Psyloche pulls a controller out of her pocket to uncloak the X-jet and they all file in. Psylocke and Wolverine take the cockpit positions and they all strap in as the Jet takes off after the sentinels. Over the com system Psyloche contacts the other X-men at the UN building. "Cyclops, Professor, you have three sentinels headed towards you…" She is cut off as a beam blast strikes the side of the Jet sending it down towards the street. Outside three sentinels track the jet as it plummets towards the ground.

At the conference the rest of the X-men hear the message and begin to head outside. Professor Xavier Alerts the Committee to the danger they all face. "I have just been informed by members of my team outside of the building that Sentinels are on their way here, all the mutants in this conference are in danger, I suggest that we take a recess until this crisis is resolved."

Immediately Magneto stands up and responds "You see not even when we mutants come here with peace on our minds will you humans leave us be. If another country would send weapons such as these against you, it would be considered an act of war but because they are sent against mutants it is nearly justice." With that magneto forms an electromagnetic force field around himself and lifts off to fly out the top of the building creating a hole as he exits, allowing rubble to fall towards the floor below. Rachel and Jean catch the rubble before it lands on the dignitaries, and allow them to escape before setting the wreckage down.

Hank and Scott run outside to follow Magneto flanked soon by Jean and Rachel. Hank turns off his holo-emitter to reveal his blue furry skin. Looking around they can't find where Magneto fled to. Suddenly a Sentinel lands in front of the UN building. "Primary Objective not found…commencing Secondary objectives….capture or destroy all Mutants." The sentinels robotic voice lets out. It takes aim at the various mutants running about trying to escape and fires its lasers at them. Another sentinel lands and helps the first, and a third lands and takes aim at the X-men. Cyclops lets out an optic blast that bounces off the armor, of his chest. The sentinel not even phased fires lazers from his eyes and raises his hand to fire out a steel tentacle towards the team. Cyclops rolls to the left while Jean grabs Rachel and flies above the blasts and beast jumps towards the tentacle grabbing onto it and tries to wrap it around the leg of the sentinel. Cyclops rolls right in front of another sentinel who fires a green goo out of his hand towards Scott, who jumps back but has the goo solidify around his leg trapping him there. Professor Xavier makes his way to the doorway to watch the events unfold, and Andrew stands beside him. "I'm sorry Professor but my superiors don't believe that I should be getting involved in this right now."

"How can you say that…fellow Americans are in danger and you will not help simply because they are mutants? Can you really live with their blood on your hands simply because you didn't act?" Xavier exclaims sending a Psionic bolt towards one of the sentinels hitting it square in the chest watching it tumble. Another Sentinel steps up to take its place as the first one starts to get up taking aim at Cyclops, the other X-men have managed to take down two of the sentinels, and are working on a third as both Rachel and The beast are hit with the goo and immobilized, Rogue flies to their aid only to be hit by a blast from the eye beams of another. The sentinels have the building surrounded and are hitting mutants in the crowd with deadly accuracy.

The X-jet makes a crash landing two blocks from the Building and the Xmen in the crashed jet slowly come back to their senses after the hard landing. Unhooking her harness Betsy checks on everyone. Wolverine is already changing into his suite and heading outside to check the damage. "Jubilee Nightcrawler fix the jet and get it working and meet us all at the UN building. Lets go Psylocke" He yells running towards the sound of laser blasts and the smell of burning flesh.

"professor I have just been informed I need to get you to one of the escape tunnels…. My superiors believe that it would be best if we didn't lose you as a Martyr today." Andrew says grabbing the back of the professor's wheelchair and trying to spin him around. He is suddenly hit by a psionic pulse that knocks him to the ground. "If you and your superiors will not help in a time of need like this than how do you expect to talk of peace with mutant kind?" The professors speech obviously has an effect as men in armor and UN uniforms come out firing on the sentinels, and Shield hover cycles begin to engage the sentinels. Andrew himself rips off his leather jacket and pulls his shirt over his head to reveal skintight black body armor underneath them with handguns and other weapons. Grabbing a metal bar attached to the back of the belt he is wearing he flips a switch on it and it turns into a beam of orange light. He runs over to Cyclops and cuts the goo away from his leg. "what the hell is that?" He questions Andrew about the sword like weapon.

"Ever see Star wars? Well its kinda like a light saber." Andrew says turning towards the sentinels. He puts the sword back and draws his pistols taking aim at the heads. He lets loose a volley of energy blasts cutting through the eye sockets of two sentinels rendering their sensors blind and taking them offline. Cyclops lets loose optic blasts with more intensity than he ever has that blast the head off two more sentinels and sends a beam high into the atmosphere. The two fight back to back letting loose energy blasts destroying five more sentinels. Suddenly wolverine lands on the back of a sentinel and slices into it. As it falls he jumps to the next one and slashes its face. Psylocke draws upon her psy-blade and slices through the leg of a sentinel, and moves towards Jean and Rachel to give them a hand. Cyclops and Andrew move towards the professor and protect him as the other X-men fend off the rest of the sentinels. They then look to the air to see Magneto battling a horde of sentinels on the other side of the building. The Sentinels that are left head towards Magneto. "X-men The sentinels are after Magneto" Xaveir projects through their minds. The X-jet arrives to fire its lasers and a volley of missiles at the horde. Magneto is using every last bit of his power to hold off the sentinels. Suddenly a sentinels chest opens up and an energy beam shoots out surrounding magneto. He begins to be sucked into the chest and is captured inside an energy field in the chest cavity of the sentinel. A pulse from inside knocks him out. The X-men charge forward and Cyclops takes aim. "If I can let loose a blast like I have been I should be able to knock a few of them out of the sky along with the one that has Magneto." He thinks letting loose a blast with all his might, although it doesn't come out a tenth of as strong as the others he had fired. It hits one of the sentinels guarding the Main target and it falls from the sky. Andrew runs to a hover cycle and hops on board pushing the pilot off and begins to chase after the sentinels…Most of the human force has been decimated by the sentinels.

The X-men get into their jet and take off after Andrew and the sentinels. They catch up to see the sentinels drop loads of air-mines at them. In his hover craft Andrew fires its beam cannons at the mines and the sentinels trying to avoid the mines and the explosions around him. Suddenly all the mines go off at once and Andrew is caught in the explosion propelling him off the hovercraft and towards the ground. The force of the blast rendering him unconscious. In the X-jet Psylocke makes a dive to avoid the blast and head towards the falling S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Kurt unhooks his harness and teleports towards the young man. He grabs him and looks up towards the X-jet to where he can see inside and Teleports again landing them hard inside the X-jet as Betsy pulls up. They look for the Sentinels on radar and in the skies but they seem to have disappeared. "take us home Betsy at full speed…I think our young friend is in need of some medical assistance." Xavier says with a glance back towards the back of the jet looking to see Rachel and Jean working on the young man with what medical supplies are in the jet.

Back at the mansion in the war room the teams from New York are looking over the damage done to the city shown on a local broadcast and still searching for where the Sentinels were headed. Suddenly one of the communication monitors comes to life with a man wearing an eye patch on it. "Is there anyone there…Logan….Xavier?" The man was Nick Fury the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. no doubt trying to find out about his agent. "This is Scott Summers" Cyclops says moving towards the screen.

"I wanted to talk to Xavier but I guess you will do, we here at S.H.I.E.L.D. are sorry about what happened at the conference, and believe that the only reason it was attacked was for Magneto….but we didn't even detect those damn tin cans until they were on top of us."

"Save the diplomatic crap Fury." Logan chimes in "Why you callin and whatcha want?"

"All right then, straight to the point…. We took substantial losses in that fight and we are having trouble with the investigation into the Sentinels, so we want your team of mutants to work for us and find out what the attack was for."

"I'm sorry, but the X-men don't work for anyone." Cyclops adds "We are willing to work with you and your agency."

"Ok I will have three of my agents there within an hour. I will send all the information we have via web link. Is there anything else you need?"

Professor Xavier joins in "Actually we would prefer to just keep the agent you had as my personal liaison. After all he has already proven himself in battle with us, and he is here already. Agent Andrew Perry was his name I believe."

"With all do respect Charles I don't think that you really want Agent Perry working with you…he isn't a team player. Plus he isn't all too fond of mutants."

"Well, if we are to ever have a true peace between mutants and humans we all must learn temperance for each other, and the sooner this case is over the sooner we can get back to the summit."

"All right then, have him contact me for his orders ASAP." With that the monitor went dark and the exchange of information began.

In the upper levels of the mansion students were playing around and some were trying out their powers. Emma Frost was observing two of the new teenagers that had become part of "The Academy for Gifted Youth" as Xavier had renamed the school. She eavesdropped on their conversation and in their minds.

"So sis whatcha think of this new school? They encourage us to use our what do they call them "gifts" and explore the extent of them. Me I say it's a load of crock, why should we only be able to explore them, we should use them whenever we want for whatever we want. After all they are our "gifts" not anyone else's." The boy named Eric Blackhurst says to his sister Elena. Eric has the ability to project dark matter from his body, he can concentrate it into blasts or just use it to fill up a room with it. Some of the forms of the dark matter he produces can be poisonous gasses, but the gasses aren't lethal and more or less harmless.

He is seventeen years old and Has shoulder length blonde hair and eyes that are pure black…though he usually wears contacts that cover up the black with the same color of pale blue that his sister 's eyes have. His powers have earned him the nickname of Shadow amongst his peers. He is six three and weighs almost two twenty, the bully of the school, concerned with protecting his older sister.. Only older by a few minutes as he always reminds her.

The two almost seem opposites, His sister Elena is small but by no means fragile. An expert in Aikido, Karate, and Punjat Silat, the same as her brother. She is only five three and barely breaks a hundred pounds, but her powers as Emma knows are very volatile. She has the ability to summon waves of sound energy and at times has amazing control over sound energy. She can, in theory, use it to put people to sleep with her voice, knock them out with a sonic blast from her hands. And maybe even shatter their ear drums or drive them insane with sound. She has some psychic powers but has only demonstrated an ability to hear thoughts and project a disrupting noise to mess with their concentration. She has the ability to levitate but has yet to learn to fly. She has the same blonde hair as her brother but lets it flow down to her lower back, usually just floating free. Although she can braid it and use it as a weapon effectively. Her abilities have given her the obvious nickname of Sonica, she isn't that confident about her abilities and sometimes they don't work the way she wants them to. Elena responds to Erik's question "No, I mean not really, I just don't like using my powers…they always seem to be out of control and well I don't like hearing people's thoughts it just doesn't seem natural. Nothing here seems natural I still feel like a freak even here." Elena starts to cry and her brother holds her tightly.

At the window that Emma watches them she makes a mental note about how its such a pity a girl with the power of Sonica is so unsure of herself…especially such a beautiful girl. Shadow on the other hand she felt was over confident and needed an attitude adjustment. Just then Erik looks over his sister's shoulder and sees his favorite target for harassment, Daniel Guthrie, a smaller boy the same age as Erik and his sister, but only five ten and maybe a hundred and forty pounds soaking wet in full gear. Daniel has black hair and brown eyes, and is a distant relative to the other Guthries and doesn't share their usual knock out features. Daniel has a force field power along with an increase in speed almost that of Pietro Frank…aka Quicksilver. He was a track star back in his old school before his power kicked in and his nickname from his old school of Speed Demon stuck here at the Academy. "You looking at my sis their speed dork?"

"Who m-m-me? Daniel asks knowing that Shadow is looking for a reason to rough him up. " No Erik I was just walking by."

"That's bullshit we both know it, and you know to call me Shadow punk." Erik starts to get up moving towards the smaller boy. His anger starting to let loose some of the dark energy. Suddenly A dark skinned female and a boy of Hispanic descent step in front of Daniel to protect the boy from Shadow's wrath. The girl Hope Marick known simply as Amazon, because of her super human strength Agility and willingness to fight, is a headstrong girl with all of the features of a Nubian princess, she stands a little over six feet, and has a fit physique and is one of the knockouts of the academy. She is an expert with most personal weapons partly due to her powers and her dad being a Special forces agent for the US Marines, Her skin is also almost indestructible when she needs it to be. The boy who is about six feet even Hector Gonzales known as shifter for his ability to change his appendages into a variety of cybernetic weapons and tools, has dreadlocks and wears clothes you would see an urban gangster wear, but despite his appearance a very easy person to get along with… as long as you aren't picking on anyone smaller than you. Alone neither Amazon or Shifter stood a very good chance against Shadow, but together they would be able to cause enough damage that he didn't feel like messing with them this day. "All right if this is how you want it to be we will solve it some other time… You can't protect that chicken forever."

"Get over yourself essay." Hector replies. "If you weren't such a jerk all the time and more like your sister maybe people would like your dumb ass a lil better."

This puts Erik over the top and he begins to charge at the two, dark matter growing around his body and channeling it into his hands ready to strike at them. Suddenly a blast of pyrotechnic energy hits at the three of their feet and they all jump out of the way. Looking over they see Jubilee and Rachel Summers standing there. Jubilee is chewing gum like usual and she pops it as Rachel speaks. "You know fighting isn't the greatest idea if you are going to have to work together, not to mention if you ever want to be teammates with the X-men. Now how about you all shake hands and make up….unless you would rather me make you all think you are dogs for the rest of the day?"

All parties involved believe she is just joking, knowing that she never likes to use her powers in a way like that, but deciding that it isn't worth the chance the three shake hands. Hope and Hector turn to find that Daniel has already disappeared and a humph from Erik shows he knew the Guthrie would do so as soon as he could. "that's better don't ya think Rache?"

"Yeah much I guess being a dog isn't that appealing." she says with a laugh as the two put an arm around each others shoulder and head back inside. Lately the two of them have been inseparable, since on a mission the two almost died, trapped under a glacier fighting some of Mister Sinister's lackeys . They shared a lot about each others lives and Jubilee since then has either spent time hanging out following Logan around or spending time with the Summer's family. Although it seemed like Jean and Scott were growing apart ever since "the Twelve" incident.

The two girls decide they want to go check on the academies patient…there was something about secret agents they both found cute, even though Agent Perry had burns over most his body last time they saw him and part of his face was cut up bad, but they both hoped that maybe the equipment in the lab could help him heal, after all from what Rachel said about what she saw of him at the conference he had a really "cute butt". The two girls take the elevator down to the lower level of the mansion and can hear Gambit and Rogue flirting in the control center of the Danger Room, obviously Logan was in there working out, judging by the feral screams he was probably having a great time. The walk down the hallway and enter the medical bay to see how Agent Perry is doing. He is still wearing the bottoms of his black armor, but amazingly most of the burns on his body had faded into slight scars that were not noticeable. Rachel giggles a bit commenting that he had a real hot stomach. The two decide to call the professor and let him know about how quickly he seems to be healing. Not seeing anything like it since Wolverine was ambushed by sabertooth and Juggernaut.

Andrew starts to come to slowly opening his eyes. His eyes a bit blurry and its hard to get his bearings. "Man what the hell hit me. Feels like I got hit by a train. No matter I will be feeling normal in a couple hours if its just some broken ribs." He thinks to himself. His eyes come into focus and he looks to his left seeing a giant sickbay. Not like any of the ones at a S.H.I.E.L.D. installation. He looks to his right and sees two girls talking on some sort of com unit, his ears ringing horribly he can't hear what they are saying. He looks at one of the girls and realizes it's the red head from the conference…. Rachel Summers wasn't that her name? And then it hits him all the memories from the conference hitting him. First his orders to not help the mutants besides Xavier, and then Xavier's speech convincing his superiors to send in support. The fight with the giant robots…… correction sentinels, and then receiving the order to not let Magneto get away at any cost. Then the explosion. "Damn that hurt" he thinks back to losing conciousness. The two girls don't seem to have noticed he woke up so maybe he can get out of here without a struggle. He looks down realizing he is only wearing the black bottoms to his suit. He looks for his jacket and sees that it is right near the door, and slipping off the table he moves towards the door. Grabbing his upper armor he looks at it seeing the holes in it and he slides outside the door the girls too distracted by the call to realize he was slipping out.

The bright lights in the hallway hurt his eyes and he quickly shields them. Looking down he sees that his suit is tattered all over. And sliding on his jacket he sees the full extent of his damage. He is seized in pain and doubles over against the wall. Regaining his composure he stands up and wonders how long he had been out guessing he must have been covered in some burns and cuts. "You lucky son of a bitch you musta been almost dead. You should prolly thank the X-men not like you would have done the same for any of them if you weren't ordered to." He thinks with a small laugh. He uses the wall to walk around realizing he is limping pretty badly. "Well where to haus…this place looks like a maze. Contact base and have em pick me up and maybe give em a tour of this place." He limps down the hall looking for some way to contact his base.

"Yes professor we will watch him for the next couple hours in case he wakes up….. No no its not an inconvenience at all, I mean someone should be here when he wakes up right?" Jubilee talks into the phone with a smile on her face and looks at Rachel with a wink. She hangs up and tells Rachel "well you get to look at that hot body for a lil longer." laughing at Rachel who is blushing.

"You think he's cute too don't lie." she says shooting back at jubilee causing her to blush a bit. The two teenage girls turn and their expression goes to one of shock. "He disappeared?" Rachel questioned Jubilee, "umm the professor said he might have powers but uh this is nuts he should be so far out …he was in a drug induced coma."

"Yeah he should have been out for at least another two hours…We better find him Rache." Jubilee and Rachel step outside the infirmary and look down the halls. Rachel uses her mental powers to track his mind. "oh my god he is about to walk in on Wolverine's training session." the two run down the hall. Towards the danger room.

Andrew limps up to a room and finding it locked believes it to be the control room. He looks at the panel on the side of the door. He pulls out a small key card from inside his jacket and presses it in the slot of the panel, in a few seconds the keycard blinks a red and green light than both lights turn green and the door slides open. Andrew steps in and the door disappears behind him… suddenly he finds himself in a jungle. Confused he makes his way through the jungle trying to find out what is going on. He reaches a clearing and looks around the sun beats down on him not able to look at the sun too long he works his way towards the tree line to get out of the heat. Suddenly a Man with blank white skin and wearing red armor steps out from the shadows, the man wears a Red headband with the Greek symbol for omega on his forehead.. Andrew is disoriented due to his injuries and the heat makes it worst. Not knowing what all is going on he loses himself in the simulation "I've read about you in the files…Omega Red right….you are sposed to be dead….. And how could you be here this makes no sense…..but if you are here I guess I can finish what the American govies should have done a long time ago." Andrew says grabbing for his pistols…realizing there not there he rolls out of the way of omega reds first barrage of tentacle whips and attacks. Reaching behind him he feels for the sword. "not there think, think what now." the next tentacle comes in an arc towards his head he ducks under it and jumps over the next one aimed at his knees. He plows into the mutant with a shoulder and than kicks the inside of his knee buckling him over his ankle as he falls Andrew rises a knee to his face sending him down to the ground. Quickly following it up he jumps into the air to drive his knee into the face of Omega Red but is swiped aside by a tentacle. Rolling as he hits the ground Andrew quickly recovers to his feet. Omega Red quickly charges letting his tentacles loose, in a vertical attack. Andrew sidesteps in-between the two tentacles and steps into the charging Russian driving his elbow hard into his sternum. The Russian is only stunned for a second and reaches both hands up and intertwines them bringing them down hard towards Andrew's head. Reaching up Andrew catches the Russian's hands as they come down and rolls backward using his momentum against him and throwing him against a point on a tree. The Russian flails his tentacles and than goes motionless, and then disappears into thin air. "Ok that makes no sense….wait this whole thing….it's a hologram….it's a training simulation. This is amazing even the sun feels real. Even the grass caused me to itch from rolling on it."

"That's because for all instances and purposes your sensory organs believe it is real" the familiar voice from the conference booms over a loudspeaker somewhere. Andrew recognizes the voice of Hank McCoy.

"So the blue scientist speaks…you know I coulda been killed in here…especially against a freak like Omega Red. That guy can level cities you know."

"My deepest apologies Mr. Perry, but you weren't supposed to break into Wolverine's training session, especially since no one was watching the simulation too closely." The Jungle soon begins to fade away showing Wolverine only twenty feet from Andrew.

"So you are the feral mutant that destroyed the weapon X facility so many years ago? You really don't look as tough as I thought….especially since I expected you would be bigger." Andrew gets out shortly before he is seized in pain again.

"Well as much as I would like to knock that grin off your face. I don't think you are in any shape to be fighting bub. Besides Fury says we have to play nice until Magneto is back in custody."

"Me work with you? I don't think so Commander Fury knows that I wouldn't do such a thing. And my team can track down the sentinels. I got a tracer on the heel of one of them right before those damn mines went off. So if you don't mind I would like to contact my command, and as for the shape _I am in_… I'm feeling a lot better than I was thank you, now where is your nearest phone.

A little angry Wolverine contains it and walks out of the danger room. " You know you should really watch what enemies you make while you are here. Andrew." a voice inside his head echoes. "Meet me in the War room, I am sending you all the information about the mansion you will need to get around here." The voice stops in his head. Suddenly Andrew seems to know where all the rooms in the mansion are and where he is in the mansion, like a virtual map in his mind. Stepping outside the holo-chamber that the X-men call the danger room he takes a right down the hall and sees a brunette with a white streak through the top of her hair and a man speaking in a cajun accent talking to each other. He cuts across the hall and enters what should be the war room.

"Good afternoon Agent Perry." The form of a man in a wheelchair now familiar to Andrew as Professor Charles Xavier, the leader of the peaceful mutants. A great diplomat in Andrew's mind, but being a mutant Andrew doesn't know whether he cat trust him. "So you don't trust mutants do you?"

"No, especially psychics and empaths. Makes free will kind of useless doesn't it, if someone can influence your mind, feelings and read your every thought what's the point?"

"Not all mutants do that to humans you know, some of us are trying to help ease the pains of coexistence."

"The only way for both sides of the human race to coexist is to find a way to keep mutants from using their powers."

"I still don't understand how you could hate your own kind, and why so much hate." Shocked at what the professor had just said to him Andrew turns the shock into anger. "So you say that mutants don't read minds, but you look deep in my mind to find I am a mutant?"

"No young man, I have not used my powers to probe your mind…I only have read what thoughts you have projected, and none have been that of being a mutant. You see you so far have shown minor signs of being a telepath… projecting your thoughts to others mainly , and than came the battle with the sentinels. You see I know that Cyclops is not capable of the energy he produced, at least not at this point in his life, and the only factor that was changed was the introduction to you, he had fought the sentinels a hundred times before. finally came the sickbay, you recovered from near death in five hours….and now don't seem to be in much pain at all, I would say that's pretty impressive…rivals the healing factor of Wolverine and Sabertooth. So care to tell me about your powers?" Xavier looks at the young man. He sees the frustration and pain on his face. He decides to let the young man speak when he is ready.

Andrew looks at the professor and than decides its time to be honest most mutants would have left him there to die not save his life. "I don't know what my powers are exactly, I can only tap into them on very rare occasions… the healing factor I know I have, but it doesn't always work, I can have a paper cut for a week, but I get shot and all the injuries on my body heal in seconds. I still have some scars but some just disapear. As for that thing with Mr. Summers, I amplify the mutant powers of those I'm around, and I also cause some electric equipment to blow when I'm around it….. I have a lot of weird things happen around me tho so I'm used to it."

After his speech Andrew looks at the professor and for once the anger seems gone from his eye. They both stand there in silence both looking for what to say next. Just then Betsy walks in the room wearing The same uniform she wore in New York. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't realize you were both in here." She lets out a quick smile towards Andrew her arms crossed and one hand brushing back her hair. She walks over towards a console and turns it on bending over to grab a pen on the ground. Andrew finds himself staring at the girl "damn maybe hangin around here wouldn't be bad."

"you know I'm a telepath right?" Betsy's voice projects into his head. She waits around listening to the conversation between Andrew and Professor Xavier.

"wow I gotta learn to control that thought projection thing" he says inside with a laugh. Snapping his head back to the professor he sees that the professor was chuckling at his childishness. Focusing on the Professor Andrew tries to project his thought. "What are you laughing about old man? "

"I was laughing at the fact that for an agent of Fury's you seem like you still have a lot of growing up to do." The professor projects back almost amazed how quick Andrew seems to be grasping thought projection.

Out loud Andrew replies to the professor "Yeah well I don't really work for S.H.I.E.L.D anyways, only for another two weeks, then I'm back to my old job. Speaking of One-eye's agency, I need to contact them anyways and get a pick up from here. I'm feeling fine now, so am I going to be treated as a prisoner or can I leave?"

"You may leave, but Commander Fury agreed to have you work the Magneto case with us….It seems that there were a lot of casualties and so he enlisted our help. If you need confirmation, or anything you can use our communication systems to contact him for your orders Mr. Perry. We will be having dinner in a couple of hours, you are welcome to join us. Until then Betsy would you please show Mr. Perry to one of the rooms at the mansion, you will be able to access everything you may need from there." Professor Xavier says moving his wheelchair out the door.

Betsy Braddock walks up to Andrew and with a smile says "you also might want to change your clothes they look just a little wore out.:

"Funny I never thought that a mine blast would do that to a person's clothes."

"Well you aren't invulnerable I saw how bad you were burnt, so what are your abilities?"

"Isn't there anything mutants talk about that doesn't regard what there powers are?" Andrew replies looking impatient.

"Very well, so I take it your not into small talk. If you will follow me, I will show you to your room. If there is anything you need don't be afraid to ask, and if the clothes in the room aren't to your liking I am afraid that you will have to deal with it. Besides I'm sure you special forces agents can afford your own wardrobe."

"touché, and I guess semi-retired assassins who are the sister of Brain Braddock don't pull down a bad pension either now do they?"

"touché" Betsy responds with an inner smile while trying to look irritated outside. "Just follow me and I will show you to your room."

"Gladly" Andrew tries to project to the other's mind while giving a wink.

"If you don't quit that I will be forced to show you my abilities." Betsy says aloud walking down the hall leading Andrew down a hall toward an elevator at the end.

"hmm I don't know about that for all I know you have the power to generate an energy katana that can be lethal to anyone you need it to be."

"So you do know a bit about me then?" Betsy replies looking over her shoulder.

"I know a little about all the X-men, and most mutants. Kind of pays in my profession."

"Oh and what's that?"

"I'd rather not talk about it." With that Andrew goes quiet, content to just follow Betsy to his room. Once there he decides to clean up and finds that in his room he has a computer there, and it seems he shares a bathroom with someone else. Upon further inspection he finds that the closet already has some clothes in it. He selects a white t-shirt and some dark khaki cargo pants and heads to the bathroom for a shower.

Outside Hope and Hector try and find Daniel after the encounter with Shadow. "Where do you think he went?" Hope asks worrying where Daniel could have ran to. "Eric needs taught a lesson you know that? He is gonna go too far and it will be way too late someone is gonna get hurt and it will prolly be Speed demon. Damn it why doesn't Professor Xavier do something about it?" Hope lets out angrily slamming her hand into a trunk of a fallen tree which shatters. Hector quickly turns a hand into a shield and deflects the shards away from his face.

"What do you want him to do? Kick Eric out and have both the twins completely alone? Eric has taken both you and me in self defense practice. Even without his powers he is still s just plain a better fighter. And as bad as Eric is Elena is that much better. Plus you know if it hit the fan we would want Eric on our side. After all he will probably be the next member of the X-men and if we get to join he will be our teammate."

"Yeah well we have to find Danny and get ready for self defense class. We have been late to way too many classes this semester." Hope says and starts yelling for Daniel in the woods outside of the mansion."

"I'm over here guys but just let me be for now please……. I'll be fine and I will make it to class. I'm faster than you guys remember." Daniel says walking from out behind a tree where he had been sitting. "I will see you both in class I promise I won't be late this time." Daniel says to them as he sits back down behind his tree. He loves this place he can see almost everything around him, and no one can find him unless they know exactly where to look. It reminded him of back home in the Appalachian Mountains. He grew up outdoors, and loved the wilderness. "now get going you two you are gonna be late." Daniel looks as they both walk away. "I never wanted to be a mutant… I didn't even want to come to this place" Daniel thinks "but Hector is the closest thing I have ever really had to a friend…. Before I came here nobody talked to me except to make sure I was gonna win the next race." He sits there thinking for a few more minutes before streaking off to class.

Hope and Hector walk towards the back of the mansion, apparently Logan and Betsy were going to have the class back there. Like usual all the cliques of the school sat by each other. Eric sat with the kids that thought they were the best most of them coming from privileged families, Elena was forced to sit there most the time, but usually slipped away to sit with someone else and talk. Jubilee and Rachel sat with Kurt Wagner, Bishop, Jean Grey, and Scott Summers as they observed the class. While other of the students sat with the other friends they had. Hector, Hope and Daniel usually sat near each other and talked, along with a couple of the other "misfits" of the academy. They mainly got called that because they didn't like interacting with the others, and kept to themselves.

Hope never talked much during the defense classes, and always wanted to learn more. It was amazing what Betsy and Logan could do. The two of them were amazing warriors, and always had something interesting to teach. Hope's father had taught her the value of fighting and he himself knew many different styles of Martial arts, but most of what he knew he kept from her since they weren't for defense they more lethal force. She always was eager to learn anything he taught her and couldn't wait to practice what she learned. Yet as she learned when she came to the academy and got into it with Eric as soon as he arrived…there is always something better. As Logan and Ms. Braddock talk more about combat, Someone is walking up around the made up arena made out of a soft mat. Betsy seemed to acknowledge that he was there and the boy who couldn't be more than five years older than herself seemed to studying the crowd of students and the session that was going on.

"Now that we covered the basics of free sparring…Erik please come up here and…" Betsy looks around at the class and then turns towards the young man with brown hair wearing a white shirt and cargo khakis. "Andrew would you like to step up here and try your hand in some sparring."

Betsy looking around for two students to spar decides to try and teach a lesson to one of the overly confident students. Calling out Eric she looks around a bit and decides to ask Andrew into the ring. After calling him out she sends a message telepathically since he seems a little confused and angry at her calling him into the ring. "Look I just need you to please teach this one a lesson he thinks he is untouchable by anyone around his own age. Just don't hurt him…that is if you think you can take him down." after receiving a nod from Andrew she walks away with Logan as the two younger men stepped in the ring.

"you know what you are doing?" A question comes from Scott.

"Well it's a good way to test Eric's limits and to see if our temporary edition is any good in combat."

"plus it would be cool to see Eric get his butt kicked by someone around our age." Jubilee chimes in.

Eric hears Betsy call his name of course, she probably loved watching him fight. "After all who better to give these kids a workout and teach them something if not the best student here." He thinks flipping his blonde bangs back over his head. Then she calls out the guy that was standing opposite of all of them. "Andrew huh well Andrew I am gonna have to teach you a lesson about combat" He thinks and than enters the ring looking back to give a wink at a couple of the girls that were sitting with him his friends and of course his sister…wait no she moved away, now she was sitting with the two "misfits". "What is she doing there, she is so far above them, she needs to quit her charity work. Now Andrew I guess I might have to hurt you a little bit." He steps in the ring and decides to greet his new outclassed opponent. "you ready Andy?" He says mockingly.

After receiving the thought projection from Psylocke Andrew calms a bit and realizes she wasn't so much trying to put him on the spot, as see if he was willing to help. She probably also wanted to see a bit more of his fighting style considering he knew more about her than he first let on she probably just wanted to study what his weaknesses could be. Andrew steps into the ring and hears the other call him Andy. "wow I haven't been called that… wait I don't think I've ever had that nickname." Andrew thinks as he looks at the taller and bigger of the two. "Well I guess I can try and defend myself." He says throwing his hands up.

"You two can begin whenever you want you know." Logan yells from the sidelines

Eric steps into a right handed fighting stance and looks puzzled at his opponent as he hasn't moved and just keeps looking back at him. "Are you going to get in a fighting stance?"

"No I'm fine as I am…are you just going to stand there looking at me funny?"

Angrily Eric moves in fast and throws a hard punch, Andrew simply steps to the side and pulls him into his knee catching him square in the sternum. Eric bends over and starts to fall, but in the split second he starts to fall Andrew grabs him by the shoulders pulling him back to his feet. Eric responds trying to throw an elbow. With ease Andrew ducks under the elbow and drives his arm across Eric's chest and sweeps his leg pulling him backwards to the ground. Quickly he grabs Eric's arm before he hits bringing him to his feet one more time.

"I won't keep you from falling again, you are beat admit it."

"Not by you I'm not." Eric exclaims unleashing a barrage of kicks and punches that Andrew sidesteps or blocks easily with one hand. Eric goes for a knife hand attack to the side of Andrew's neck just to find air as Andrew ducks under the strike and grabs Eric's shirt and pulls it over his head and ties it off. Andrew walks out of the ring towards where the X-men sit.

"So, is that what you had in mind Ms. Braddock?" Andrew asks looking in Betsy's direction. Without a response from the deadly telepath he continues. "Anyways what I really came out here was to find out if anyone could help me find Dr. McCoy I have an idea on what happened with the Sentinels."

"Well he is probably in his laboratory, I can show you where it is if you want." Jubilee chimes in before anyone can answer.

"That sounds like a good plan, plus maybe Jubilee could give you a tour of the estate, and introduce you to any of the other members of the team you run across. I forgot to ask Professor Xavier wanted to know if you were going to join us for dinner?"

"Well I actually wouldn't mind seeing around the estate, I seem to know my way around, some parts but not all of it, and as for dinner, if Dr. McCoy and I are able to get what we need to accomplished I will be there within an hour if not well I guess food will have to wait." Andrew puts simply and starts to walk away, leaving Jubilee to catch up to him.

"So what do you think of the Institute…err I mean academy, I'm not used to the new name yet." Jubilee says

"It seems like a nice place to raise kids." Andrew puts plainly. "you must love it here."

"Was that supposed to be a question or a shot at me?" Jubilee asks.

"Well I guess it came out as a little of both." Andrew says walking with his hands in his pockets.

A little upset at the remark Jubilee begins to show Andrew around and introduce him to whoever they run into, including Nightcrawler. After a brief discussion with him in German that Jubilee didn't completely understand, she mentions how Nightcrawler saved Andrew's life, to which Andrew simply says thank you.

Eric Finally tears off his shirt to see Andy walking away towards the X-men. "What how did he…. That couldn't have just happened." Eric thinks.

"Eric are you all right?" He hears Elena's voice as she runs up to his side.

"I'm fine Elle, but that kid is gonna get it next time." Eric looks around to see the "misfits" laughing at him. "What are you laughing at… one of you want to step up next?"

"Actually yeah, I wouldn't mind." Hector says standing up.

"Both of you knock it off." Psylocke says, "now we are going to do some step sparring, than pair up and do some free sparring on your own, everyone pick a partner and step onto the pads."

After class Eric finds Elena, and he offers his arm to escort her to the mansion to clean up after the practice. "So Drake, Ross, Alicia, and everyone are gonna head out this weekend and go camping, and they invited me to go on so you want to go?"

"Not really I want to stay back and study _Crime and Punishment _ I hear there might be a pop quiz next week on it."

"C'mon Elena this is the last two weeks of our high school days, and than we can do what we want."

"Like stay here and try and study with the X-men right?"

"Well yeah its been our dream since our powers manifested c'mon can you imagine it?"

"Yes especially the way you tell it. You need to get a shirt on all the girls are staring."

"Let them stare, I can't help it they like me."

"But if a guy looks at me you want to tear his eyes out?"

"That's different, guys can't be trusted. I know I am one."

"And trust me girls can't be trusted either. After all I am one." Elena adds with an I got you wink.

"Well I am going to change then meet you for supper, sound good?"

"Yeah sounds good, I guess see you in a while."

Elena says goodbye to her brother and walks outside to sit beneath a tree and watch the sun begin to sink for sunset she sits reading for a while and than begins to think. Tomorrow was Saturday so all of the students will be on Weekend break until Sunday night. "I guess since Eric will be gone for the weekend I can hang out with Hector, Hope, and Daniel, I don't know what his problem is with them….ever since he got his abilities he has turned into an elitist." Elena thinks back to how her brother and her used to do everything together, and used to help anyone out that needed. Just because they were from a rich family didn't mean that they didn't care. Their parents always chastised them about what they called unnecessary "charity work". Neither of them ever listened and would always have their driver stop when the weather was bad to pick up any of the other children they saw. Everyone at their public school liked them, and didn't care who their parents were. Then Elena's power manifested. Shortly after Eric's mutant abilities awakened and while Elena tried to hide hers Eric began to show them off. "What happened to him…. He used to be so humble now I don't think he can even go a day without using them."

"umm hey…your brother around?" A voice comes from the tree above her.

"Nope I think you're safe Danny."

"I think I'll stay up here just the same if you don't mind Elena I don't feel like him going off on me again.

"You'll be fine, I don't know why you just don't use your force field on him so he can't hurt you."

"… I can't always control them I could try and put one around me but instead put one around him….and it might not have any air in it…. I found that out when I tried to save a dog from his owner…. I thought I had my powers figured out and well the dog lasted about four minutes…I learned here that if I'm not careful my power can push the air around it out and suck all the air from where it surrounds. Now I can make a safe field around me, but still can't control any of the ones I make around someone else."

"I know how that is, look at my power if I'm not careful when I use mine I can shatter peoples eardrums or when using my mind disrupting ability I can permanently drive someone insane."

"not to mention that hitting one of your sound barriers is like hitting a rubber brick wall, not only does it hurt like hell but you ricochet off of it too." Hector says laughing about one of the first Danger room simulations that he was in with Elena.

"yeah that was funny… I never knew you could walk into something and than be thrown across a room." Hope says walking up to the group.

"Yeah" Elena responds looking down at the ground obviously distraught over the memory.

"Oh c'mon Elle it was funny, don't you remember?"

"Welcome to the Danger Room, for some of you this is your first time in this simulation. The object is to protect the civilian with you from attacks coming from the attacking robots that will attack you. In here as you may know you can use any powers you feel comfortable with. Try to focus on working together, that is after all what this simulation focuses the most on." Scot Summers' voice comes over the loud speaker inside the room which turns into an alleyway and a holographic teenage female appears in the street and robots begin to form around the group of six teenagers. The rest of the class watches and waits their turn in the control room Eric grumbles that he should be there with his sister, but his complaints fall on deaf ears as the simulation begins. Inside the simulation are younger versions of Speed Demon, Amazon, Shifter and Sonica and two other mutants that are older than them. The two older mutants yell out orders to the team, and initiate a strike on the robots as they tell the others to work on protecting the civilian. Shifter Speedball and Sonica form around the civilian and Amazon helps the others attack at the robots.

The simulation seems to be going good until one of the older mutants gets hit by a stun blast. The other Senior mutant and Amazon move to his aid as the robots begin to surround the three young mutants. Shifter's arms give off a glow of light and than turn into blasters as he blows robots away with energy shots. Speedball takes off with a force field around him running through robots and having blasts bounce off him. He begins to get uneasy and his force field almost begins to fail as he runs back to the group to recuperate. Sonica lets out blasts of sound energy disabling the robots as they step forward. The robots let fly a volley of energy blasts towards the small team. Speedball reinforces his field and dodges the volley. Sonica panics and throws her hands up and the blasts hit an invisible barrier that ripples with a low hum when they are sent back at the robots faster than before. Not seeing any of this Shifter has turned one arm into a shield and is deflecting the blasts, he works towards trying to get his shield over to block blasts aimed at her, and all of a sudden hits an invisible wall that propels him away from it and hears a low hum and his ears ring of it.

The flashback is cut off by the sound of a high pitched whistling noise. The noise is loud and seems to be getting closer. Elena watches as she can see the noise get closer and closer. Elena locks in on the sound and sees what it is and yells for everyone "GET DOWN NOW!"

Inside the mansion in the lab of Beast, Jubilee begins to introduce Andrew to Hank, but is cut off by the blue form of the beast. " Aww Mr. Perry, to what do I owe this pleasure?."

"Long time no see Doc."

"Not really, you saw me this morning."

"Yeah imagine my surprise hearing the proffessor introduce the one and only 'Doctor Henry McCoy, famous geneticist and also a mutant' but for some odd reason you had a normal body, it took me half the conference to realize that you weren't cured you were just hidin behind a holo-emiter. I seem to remember someone preaching acceptance of mutants for who they are and what they look like, and yet you hide your appearance?"

"My dear Mr. Perry, astute as always. The committee did not want to hear from the Beast they wanted to hear from Professor Xavier and his colleagues They would never have let me enter the building in this state and you know it."

"Hold up you two know each other?" Jubilee says sliding a stick of gum into her mouth listening to the two fight.

"Yes Mr. Perry worked with the Avengers a few times, and I had the pleasure of his company while I helped them with a few problems."

"Yeah last time was in New York I believe someone threatened to use a Nerve agent in times square…

"that's classified Mr. Perry." Hank interrupts.

"I'm sorry do you work for the government now Doc?"

"Jubilee would you please excuse Andrew and I for a moment?" Hank politely asks the girl. Jubilee walks out the door and Hank keeps working, and than locks the door behind them. "You know Andrew, you are as brash and foolhardy as ever, you could have easily died in that explosion today."

"I don't think so Doc, I don't let a little thing like that keep me from my mission."

"Oh and what is it this time? Assassinate one of the members of the cabinet perhaps, abduct Professor X after he was done with his speech?"

"Not that simple as a termination, or a grab. I actually was there for an investigation for SHIELD, mutants have been disappearing across the globe, some by sentinels and then a few of them were spotted stealing military technology last weekend."

"So your thoughts on this are?"

"Someone is controlling the sentinels and I now I believe is using them to abduct the mutants they want to help them pull off these crimes…..maybe brainwashing them to help out with whatever they have planned. SHIED thinks its HYDRA, but this isn't their style."

"Well sounds like you have a conundrum on your hands."

"Your telling me, but I think I figured out how the Sentinels disappeared so quickly."

"Yes I have been working on that as well, what is your hypothesis?"

"an experiment stole in Stockholm early this year was a brand new form of cloaking…it was supposed to work almost perfectly."

"ahh yes I've heard of it, the only problem was it left a trace amount of charged hydrogen in the air."

"Exactly so couldn't you rig something up to follow that trail?"

"Easily, we could be done within the hour….but this isn't the only reason you are here is it?"

"No, I remember you talking about the collars they used in Genosha, and you said that you used something like that here when harboring a fugitive….is there something I could use?

"So you are a mutant like I thought in New York."

"yeah whatever you want me to give you the whole you were right I was wrong speech?"

"No, I know how much you loved that speech last time." Hank says with a laugh. "here" He flips a watch to Andrew, "this will keep you from using most powers."

"Most?"

"Well some abilities can't be stopped, but it should be able to suppress the your ability to enhance energy around you and multiply without your control."

"Well that's what I'm looking for, wait how did u know about that ability?"

"My dear Mr. Perry, I am a scientist I must pay attention to the details and…" before Hank can finish Andrew cuts him off.

"Got it yer a bright one, and you didn't find it that hard all things considering…. Now how does this thing get turned on?"

"put it on and press the two buttons on the side." As Beast tells him what to do Andrew follows the simple instructions and turns the device on. "If you want to turn it off do the same thing or just take it off."

"Well I don't see that happening anytime soon."

"Remember you owe me for New York, and this is what I have in mind."

In the Male shower room Eric grumbles about the "new kid" to a couple of the other students around his age as he towels off and puts on black mesh shorts and a tank top. A few boys walk in laughing about how someone embarrassed the cockiest senior they have, and as it is said Eric jumps in front of them ready to shut them both up. "So you heard I got beaten up huh?"

"Y-Y-yes sir, but I-I guess it was just a s-s-stupid rumor."

"Yeah must be like that and I guess you sophies are gonna go tell everyone that's exactly what it was, right?"

"Yes sir." The other sophomore replies grabbing his friend and pulling him out the door. Eric just laughs a bit and then grabs a gym bag and tells his friends he will see them at dinner. Eric walks towards a window and looks out the second floor and sees his sister and the misfits sitting together under a tree. "How dare they harass my sister." He thinks aloud. His eyes turn from anger to fear as he sees a horde of robotic forms flying towards the Academy. He looks down and sees his sister pull the misfits to the ground, and everyone do the same as he sees an object impact into the front door of the academy.

Back underground an alarm goes off and Emma Frost contacts everyone Psionically to tell them that the mansion is under attack. Professor Xavier mentally sends out orders to the X-men. He tells Jubilee, Rachel, Bishop, and much to her dismay Psylocke who was looking forward to the fight to get the students to the basement. Outside Wolverine, Cyclops, and colossus rush to the front lines which happen to be just past the tree where four of the students lay at. A few of the students are fighting the oncoming Sentinels but the X-men yell for them to get back. Rogue shows up with Gambit and storm not far behind them. Wolverine is picked up by Rogue and thrown for the Fast Ball Special right at the lead mutant hunting robot's face. Wolverine pops his claws and shreds through the sentinels face. Beside the lead sentinel two more are struck down by optic blasts. A lightning bolt shreds through three others. The Sentinels begin to fall back as the X-men push their attack. Before the X-men realize it they are surrounded, the Sentinels pulled them into an ambush. And through a crowd of Sentinels enters a huge behemoth wearing armor, that could only be The Juggernaut.

Seeing what crashed through the door Eric jumps from the second floor out the window and lets loose some of the dark energy to soften his fall as the academy fills with a green smoke. Students cough and come out of the doors coughing and then collapse. He rushes to his sisters side and sees that Shifter and Speedball aren't getting up. Amazon gets up and looks back at him and checks on the other misfits. Eric runs over to his sister and helps her up. "I'm fine Eric help Amazon with the others." Like usual Eric only cares for his sister as he sees a Sentinel begins to fire a blast from his eyes towards the group. Elena steps in front of the group and throws her hands out and the blast ricochets back towards the sentinel taking out his arm as it falls to the ground. The sentinel charges his eyes to fire again, but a blast comes from behind Eric, he turns to see Shifter's arm turned into a cannon and feels the Sentinel hit the ground. He quickly turns and sees more Sentinels approaching. Eric lashes out with his powers and blasts two of the robots with dark energy which is enough to disable them both. Just then the X-men run by and tell them to get back. They watch as Rogue throws Wolverine at the Sentinel closest to them. They watch as their teachers start to get surrounded by the sentinels and hear yells and blasts. "We have to go help them." Amazon yells to the others.

"No we have to get back and make sure the younger kids get to safety." Shifter says grabbing Amazon's arm as she tries to run towards the sentinels.

"Shifter's right lets go…Eric can you give us some cover?" Elena asks. Shadow nods and lets out the dark energy creating a cloud around them.

"Hold hands and grab on to me I can see through this stuff you all can't." Shadow says leading them towards the mansion. He watches as Psylocke rounds up the kids with Bishop. Out of what appears to be thin air soldiers materialize around the two x-men. Psylocke strikes out at them taking down three with an initial attack. Bishop blasts two with the energy he had stored up, but the remaining soldiers hit them both with an electric charge knocking them to the ground. Jubilee and Rachel show up to help there fallen comrades. Jubilee sees the black cloud and yells out to Rachel that they have to get the students to the hangar, knowing that Eric would hear her. After getting the group in the door of the mansion and working towards the elevator Eric comes up with an idea. "You all stay here and guard the door, be defensive and don't let anyone get close to it. I will gather as many of the students I can find that haven't already made it down to the hangar. If I don't make it back in three you all get to the hangar." With that he leaves the group and runs towards the dorms looking for anyone he can find.

In Hank McCoy's lab the power is out, trapping Andrew and the Beast in the lab. The two seem to be bickering and Andrew keeps trying to hotwire the door and ends up just keep getting shocked. "You know what the definition is of insanity don't you?" Hank asks Andrew as he gets another bad shock and heals himself again.

"Yes doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result."

"Than why do persist on shocking yourself."

"Because I am not trying the same thing…. I'm rewiring the whole damn door and if yer not gonna help how bout you shut your blue hairy face." As he lets out his frustration Kitty pride phases through the door.

"I was waiting on her to get here." Hank says with a smile. Turning towards Shadowcat Beast addresses her. "Aww Miss Pride so good of you to join us in our glorious sanctuary. How is everyone holding up out there?"

"Well the students took out about six of them, and the other X-men were taking care of the rest of the Sentinels."

"Were?" Andrew asks with a frown.

"Yeah they are surrounded out there and we lost all communications. We have every student accounted for now that we have the security systems back online, but half of the student body has been taken by the Sentinels. We have all but five of the students not captured in the carrier ready to take off."

"Well then how bout we get the hell out of here too?" Andrew interrupts her from going any further. "Obviously the X-men need our help so how bout we get the hell outa here and help em?"

"Well for one my young Mr. Perry we need to evacuate the students not help the X-men, they can handle themselves."

"Well I have to go up to my room to get my equipment anyways, so I will check on them if you don't mind."

"The mansions defenses are only going to hold off for another ten minutes max by that time we have to be in the air for Muir Island."

"Well if I ain't down here in five I will meet you all on Muir. Now can you get us out of here?"

"Patience is a virtue Mr. Perry." Hank says walking over towards Shadowcat and Andrew.

"All right its time to go I guess." Kitty says grabbing on to both of them and phasing them through the rubble. As soon as they get through Andrew starts running towards the elevator. He forces it open and lets three of the students by as they come down a ladder mounted on the side of the elevator shaft. Once the three younger children pass he starts to climb the ladder towards the second floor. . Reaching the second floor he climbs out of the shaft and heads towards the room he was in earlier. The hall seems to be full of dark smoke making it hard to breathe. He works along the corridor feeling the placards on the doors for room numbers. Andrew coughs a few times and bumps into something in the smoke. Quickly he reacts by stepping back and sweeping the legs out from under his adversary. Rolling forward he drives his heal into the chest of the body, but his leg is caught and pushed back. Recovering to his feet quickly he prepares himself for the next volley, the dark smoke makes it hard for Andrew to see so he closes his eyes.

Shadow has worked through the halls and helped rescue almost ten of the younger students at the academy. He shows back up at the elevator to see a few of the soldiers defeated at the misfits' feet. "so at least you all haven't let my sister get captured yet. I have one wing left to check, get these three down to the hangar and wait there." With that Shadow runs towards the corridor that the X-men stay in. He lets his dark matter fill the Hallway as he checks each of the rooms. Before he can get to the end of the hallway he hears a couple men talking in a room. "Yes sir we understand, Professor Xavier has already been captured by our forces. The mental inhibitor has been placed on him, and he is being shipped back to the compound. The X-men are not standing up well to our combination of Sentinels and that freak Juggernaut. The charges are set and this place will blow in five minutes. I am in the SHIELD Agents room and taking everything I can find now sir."

"Good work Sergeant Harris, I am sure there will be a raise and promotion for you when you get back to the post. This is Linston out." Shadow hears the man rummaging through the room, and swear a few times as what seems to be black smoke fills the room. Shadow charges in and grabs the man by his head and slams it into the wall knocking him out. He looks around in the room and can't find anything out of the ordinary and walks out of the room. When he gets out of the room he is bumped into, and as he turns toward the source he is swept from his feet. Shadow hits the ground and sees a foot coming for his stomach quick enough to catch it and push it away from him. He gets to his feet and looks through his smoke to see the new kid standing there ready to fight. "Whoa hold on a sec yer with the Sentinels and commandos?" The new kid seems to recognize his voice and stands relaxed

"You really think I am with the tin cans outside? And how the hell can you see in this stuff?

"Maybe you aren't, and the Dark Matter is part of my power so of course I can see through it, but why are you up here if you aren't with them?" Shadow says beginning to clear out the hallway of dark smoke.

"I'm going to my room to get some of my things, so I can help the X-men out." The new kid says walking towards the same room that the commando was in.

"No we need to get out of here, there is only five minutes before they blow this place sky high."

"Then get out of here and evacuate with the rest the kids." The other says walking towards the same room Shadow just came out of.

"I ain't a kid and you shouldn't be goin in there, I left one of the wanna be soldiers in there."

"Why didn't you take him with you to be interrogated?" The new kid walks into the room with the unconscious man. Shadow follows him in and watches as he starts to search the closet. "There we go, he pulls open part of the wall to reveal a hidden compartment containing a large duffle bag. "So you gonna grab the body and bring it along or not?"

"I don't even know you and your giving me orders, I think you need to step off before I.."

"do what fight me, There isn't time for this you can fight me when we get clear of here. Now grab him while I carry this stuff and lets get to the hangar bay."

On the lawn of the school the Juggernaut attacks the gathered X-men, while they are surrounded by sentinels also trying to take out the X-men. Colossus seems to be able to give Juggernaut a rough time, but seems to be getting tired. Wolverine is tearing through the head of a sentinel when he is hit from behind by an energy blast from one of the sentinels. Cyclops turns and fires an optic blast through the sentinel that hit Wolverine as Rogue catches the feral mutant and puts him on the ground safely as she flies towards The Juggernaut to help out Colossus, but she is batted away like a fly and sent hurtling towards a sentinel which catches her in its grasp. It sends an energy pulse through its tentacle and overloads her body. Its chest opens up and the mutant is placed in its chest and encased in an energy field, and than the chest closes, and it begins to fly away. Seeing this storm chases after the flight of the sentinel just to be lead away from the other X-men and surrounded by more sentinels in the air. She tries to summon up her elemental powers but is hit by a blast from behind and plucked from the sky by a tentacle to receive the same fate as her southern teammate. Juggernaut charges at Cyclops, but wolverine attacks him from the side, only to be swatted away like a mosquito in the summer. Cyclops lets loose another volley of three optic blasts that barely stun the behemoth, and so he rolls out of the way and as he gets to his feet he sees a blast of green goo as it plasters him to the ground, and than a grenade is dropped at his feet and the other X-men look at it expecting the worst as three more are dropped… with a last charge Wolverine jumps to attack Juggernaut but knocked to the ground losing consciousness.

Looking out the window Andrew sees an explosion in the distance, and close to the front door he sees Psyloche, and Bishop looking weary but holding their own against some troops. A Flash of pyrotechnics catches his eyes as he looks to see both Jubilee blowing away a couple of the soldiers, and Rachel throwing a few of the soldiers around like rag dolls with her telekinetic powers, and decides some help should be in order. "Ok new plan." Andrew says turning to Eric as he drops the bag. "you are gonna take this bag down with the prisoner, and get on the plane to head out of here with the other students, while I make sure at least four of the X-men make it out of this alive….and so you know what I'm about to do is just a frag'n distraction so you can get those students out of here safely, so don't argue with me." Andrew says pulling two pistols from the bag and clipping two of the energy swords he used in New York on his belt, and he reaches down in the bag to grab a bag of metallic marbles from the bottom and puts them in the cargo pocket of the khakis he has on. He hands the duffle bag to Eric, and with a nod he watches as shadow leaves the hall.

Laser fire rings out from around Rachel, and so she throws up a telekinetic force field instinctively, but it surprises her to see three of the soldiers fall to the ground. Looking up she sees the glass of the second floor break and Andrew jump down firing on two other soldiers that were closing on the injured older X-men. Rachel quickly sends Psionic bolts strait at three soldiers who are firing at jubilee as she takes cover behind a tree and fires her pyrotechnics back in Rachel's direction hitting two Soldiers next to her. Psyloche and Bishop who seem to be recovered are fighting off the last of the soldiers Bishop absorbs the energy blasts from their weapons and psyloche knocks them out with a quick slash from her psi-blade. Andrew knocks out the last soldier standing with a spinning back fist to the temple using the butt of his pistol as an extra tool. Just then Psyloche yells for everyone to get inside after looking towards where the other X-men were fighting. Rachel runs for the front door looking back to see that the sentinels were flying away from the mansion and that there were no bodies laying on the scorched ground where the x-men once battled. Fear crept into her mind and she begins to stop and turns towards the scorched area suddenly she feels a tug on her wrist and is snapped back to reality seeing Andrew pull her through the door, still not grasping everything around her she feels pushed into the elevator.

"The elevator's working c'mon lets go." Hope yells as the X-men come through the door, "We've just been waiting for you, but Shadow found out the mansion is rigged to blow with explosives. We don't have more than a couple minutes…." with that she gets cut off as Psyloche pushes her back into the elevator and the new kid pushes Rachel into the elevator and follows her as Psyloche slams on the close door button and the elevator moves down the shaft. The new kid reaches into a bag that Shadow brought with him and pulls out a couple syringes and checks them. He walks over to the prisoner shadow brought with him and injects one of them in his arm, and then walks over to bishop and gives him the other. The silence is broke by Psyloche.

"Hank its Betsy, take off now we will follow you out if we can, take off now the mansion is going to explode." with that the doors begin to open, and Betsy yells for everyone to follow her.

"Hank where is everyone?" Kitty Pride's voice says from behind the beast in the cockpit of the X-jet.

"They ran into problems, Betsy is taking them out through the escape tunnels, they are going to meet us at Muir Island. If its still standing." Hank Replies firing up the engines on the X-jet

"We can't just leave without them."

"If we don't leave now Ms. Pride we will go up in an explosion." Hank says as the jet begins to lift off the ground vertically.

"We've been in these tunnels for like an hour now, do you think we're lost guys?" Daniel Guthrie whispers to Hope and Heckter.

"We're not lost." Comes the response ahead of them as Psylocke shoots back a death glare at the young Guthrie.

Danny thinks back to how they barely made it into the tunnels and how any chance at going back through the mansion was lost as part of the tunnel collapsed when the Academy was leveled by an explosion. The tunnels were dark and they were guided only by the light from flares that were in a bag that Eric was carrying, and the light from Psylockes Psyblade. They had been walking, Psylocke had been leading them, although she was badly beaten up and limping, and looked barely able to stand let alone walk in a straight line. Jubilee followed hellping Rachel along since she was worn out from keeping part of the tunnel from caving in and was hit on the side of the head by a piece of falling debris. Then came the four other students trading turns carrying the bag that the flares came from and pulling out a flare when the old one started to die. Hope was helping the seemingly docile prisoner along, apparently whatever he had been given was supposed to keep him "out of it" for over thirteen hours. Last followed the guy that beat on Eric in the defense class who Eric dubbed "The New Kid" and since Danny couldn't remember his name it stuck for him. He was almost dragging Bishop along who apparently had broken ribs and something wrong with his leg. The New Kid had shrapnel in his shoulder when they entered the tunnel, but he immediately dug it out with a knife, and was the only one of the team that fought the soldiers that isn't worse for wear, and they had been wading through two feet of water and lugging things the whole way. Then the flare started to flicker and began to die. Heckter digs in the side pouch of the bag. "There aren't any more flares in this side pouch is there any in the others." Heckter said looking at Erik since he had carried the bag into the tunnels with them.

"Don't look at me its not my damn bag, ask Andy back there its his bag of tricks." Erik shoots back with almost a yell.

"There aren't anymore flares in that bag, and I can tell that our point man is about to pass out so her powers might give out on us here quickly."

"I'll be fine, im touched at your concern though." Psylocke says sarcastically.

"No worries gang, maybe you should take a break for a while Betsy and I can just light this place up with some Pyro for a lil bit."

"No save your strength for carrying Rachel, if we don't get her out of these tunnels and to some medical treatment soon it could be bad, so lets keep moving." Betsy says irritated about the whole situation.

Danny looks around at everyone, and sees Andy look at his watch and play with it a bit. Which seems odd to Danny but before he could note it a flash of purple light fills up the tunnel and Danny looks forward to see that Psylocke's energy blade is touching the top of the ceiling and emitting a very strong light that shows the end of the tunnel no more than fifty yards away.

"Thank god" Heckter exclaims seeing the end of the tunnel.

"No kidding" Hope says with a smile as Psylocke reaches the end looks around.

"Computer open emergency door five echo lima authorization code Crimson Dawn."

A few seconds go buy and Danny hears a female voice that has either a Scottish or Irish accent, Danny isn't sure which, that responds to Betsy's code.

"Access Granted, welcome Ms Braddock. With that the side of the wall pushes back and moves to the side revealing a stone spiral stairscase.

The weary mutants climb the staircase and Betsy stumbles upon reaching the top collapses from exhaustion.

"Daniel come here and help Bishop, and I'll get this door open." Andrew says from behind him, but Danny doesn't hear him the first time and Erik smacks him on the back of the head and tells him to do what he is told.

"umm yeah, right away." Danny says as he allows Bishop to lean on him and frees Andrew to move to the door. Searching around the door in the dark Daniel can barely see what Andrew is doing except he sees the new kid pick up Psylocke and press her hand against the wall and the doors swings inward revealing sunlight on the other side.

Slowly Psylocke starts to drift out of her dreams, dreams that were nightmares haunted by the metal beasts that took her teammates from her, those she called family… they will pay… and those that control them will pay…. Pay with their lives. In the background of her subconscious Psylocke can hear talking around her as consciousness returns fully. She slowly opens her eyes to see that Andrew is wrapping her arm with a bandage.

"Well good morning." He says with a smirk.

"Morning? What time is it? How long have I.." she tries to get out but is interrupted

"Its 3 A.M. and we got here at like eight last night so you can do the math if you feel up to it. I was only able to get into the medical supplies, the rest of the panels need voice ID and retina confirmation, and it took me most the night to find four of the damn panels, this place is pretty incognito. Not to mention secure, mind telling me what the hell it is?"

"Just a little summer cabin that Professor Xavier keeps on the estate in case of emergencies."

"How come S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't know about this place?"

"Now why would I tell you that?" Psylocke says as Andrew secures the bandage around her left arm. "So how bad are the others?" she continues her look going into total seriousness.

"Rachel is definitely the worst off now that you have woken up, I think is a concussion, but I'm really not a medical expert, she keeps going in and out which can't be good. Bishop is just gonna be in some pain for the next few weeks, nothing I could do but give him what pain meds we have here. Everyone else has minor injuries, a couple bruises here and there is all."

"I take it you're the only one up?"

"Yeah, everyone was out as soon as they found a place on the floor. I think we need to worry about our next move now, who knows if the Sentinels can find us here or not."

"Well our only air transport is destroyed, and the rendezvous point is on Muir."

"Yeah, but those robots have to know about the X-men connection with Muir Island. I think that would be the worst place to go at the moment, and I don't feel like walking into a trap that much."

"X-men don't let each other walk into an ambush, the rest of the students and staff are going to be at Muir and that's where we will be going."

"And how you gonna get there? We have a van in that garage and unless you have a hidden jet round here, you are gonna need me to get us the hell out of here."

"Actually no, as far as I'm concerned your use here is over, You're a mutant hating closed minded bigot kid that has no people skills, and needs someone to knock some sense into him." Betsy says as the look on the others face goes ghost wait and he looks shocked. After a few moments his expression turns back to his normal emotionless face and he opens his mouth to reply.

"I see the same hate in your eyes that you seem to be accusing me of, and you don't know me so how are you going to judge me at all." Andrew says finishing up the last stitch on Psylockes arm. "Now if you will excuse me I have better things to do than be lectured by the likes of you." With that Andrew walks towards the other room and into the dark. He then moves towards the door and steps outside to look at the night sky. "Why are you even still here, use the Global in the bag, have them detained and then you can go about your normal life…… normal ok maybe not, but at least as normal as you are used to. Although a vacation wouldn't feel too bad…and then you can…"

"I'm sorry for how I acted." Betsy's voice interrupts his thoughts. "There really is no excuse for how I acted inside, but now I have a whole new responsibility, I have to find the students a safe place to hide while I find where those troops took the others."

"I've already taken a look at his equipment, and looked through what he has…no clues really, guess SHIELD will just have to interrogate him when they come pick me up."

"And detain us correct at least that's what you were thinking."

"You said you wanted those kids safe, wouldn't they be safe with SHIELD? Bishop and Rachel aren't going to be able to fight for a while, and that leaves you and Jubilee, and I don't see you two being able to take on one of those sentinels let alone the damn twenty that we saw outside the institute. You are right though, I do think that mutants and baselines can't live peacefully simply because Human kind fears what it doesn't understand, and it's a given fact that only the strong survive as the world evolves so sooner or later we will destroy ourselves or one race will be wiped out."

"That sounds a lot like what Hitler thought, not to mention Apocalypse. Why do you hate mutants so much?

"I don't just hate mutants, its all of Humanity, we justify killing each other just because we feel we are dangerous, or different."

"This from the same person that killed his own best friend."

"So now my thoughts aren't private anymore?"

"I didn't read your thoughts, I was there Singapore almost two years ago, you killed Special Agent Andrew Perry of SHIELD.


End file.
